PLAID Cymru's vice president, Dafydd Iwan, yesterday faced calls from within his own party to abandon a bid for the party leadership.

PLAID Cymru's vice president, Dafydd Iwan, yesterday faced calls from within his own party to abandon a bid for the party leadership.

Mr Iwan has been under pressure from opposition politicians to drop out of the race for the party's presidency, following his comments that many English people were moving to Wales to get away from immigrants.

A member of Plaid Cymru yesterday stated his support for those calls - before last night retracting it.

Adam Rykala, who was Plaid's 2001 Parliamentary candidate in Blaenau Gwent, posted a message on the New Wales website. Underneath a headline "Dafydd Iwan commits political suicide", Mr Rykala's message read, "The comments have caused many opposition politicians to rightly claim he should stand down from the presidency."

The row started last week when Mr Iwan made his controversial remarks in a speech at the National Eisteddfod in Mid Wales. He said people were moving to Wales to "avoid all the Pakistanis and all these Indians who have moved to English towns".

Mr Iwan has since said he is a life-long campaigner against racism and would fight it "wherever it raises its ugly head". His speech drew criticism from Labour.

First Minister Rhodri Morgan described the comments as crass, saying, "The ethnic- minority communities in Wales will not be happy about the implication that Wales is an ethnically pure, all-white country, when it clearly is not. It is one of the most cosmopolitan countries in the world.

"If this was a Labour candidate, there would be an enormous reaction. A candidate who had made that kind of comment would be under a lot of pressure to cease being a candidate."

Labour has already called on Mr Iwan to withdraw from the race to become Plaid Cymru's new president, saying his comments were reminiscent of the far-right British National Party.

But Mr Rykala later said he no longer believed that Mr Iwan should step aside from the leadership contest, adding, "I think people will judge his comments fairly."

He said he considered Mr Iwan's comments to be "foolish", and added, "People in high places have to think about what they say.

"He should carry on with the leadership bid, but now we should be very careful what we say and who we attack."